Wednesday, December 06, 2017

3 things about me - Holiday Version

Joining in with the amazing Tonya for a Holiday edition of 3 things about me

3 Things I love about Christmas
1. Celebrating baby Jesus. What its all about.
2. Christmas songs. I dont know if its because its one month out of the year that they are played, but they just make me so happy to listen to.
3. Lights. I always love when dark nights are made more joyful with glow of Christmas lights from everyone's homes & windows.

3 Things I dislike about Christmas
1. The materialism of it. So much of Christmas isn't about the celebration of Jesus & it just makes me so sad. How it turned from celebrating our Savior to spending all the money you have saved up for a moment of opening a package & let's be honest, how many of those packages are totally forgetten in such a few weeks? It's just sad to me. I always say I cant imagine what God thinks when he sees what people focus on during the holiday
2. The Comparisons. In a world of Pinterest & Instagram & the goal to have the PERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL HOLIDAY - complete with decorations, tree, gifts just wrapped with the perfect bow that stands up (how does that even happen?).... The goals & expectations are just too much.
3. THE STRESS. I guess that sums it up. Trying to please everyone with that gift you are trying to figure out. The finacial stress. The trying to be everywhere, be everyone & do everything.... UGH

3 Favorite Christmas Movies
1. ELF - I never tire of it & still gut laugh every time
2. Scrooged - with Bill Murray. I adore that movie.
3. The Santa Clause. I love the movie -but it also is special because the day we saw it in the theater, is the same day Ricky proposed to me. I remember that day so well.

3 Favorite Christmas Traditions
1. Christmas Breakfast. I dont know why but I love making breakfast on Christmas morning. It's nothing different than I usually make, but it just tastes magical that morning.
2. I will say, the past few years, our Christmas Day has opened up with out any commitments to go anywhere so we've started going to the first movie of the day on Christmas day - while everyone else is opening presents or spending time with family. It's been a fun add on to our holiday. This year - STAR WARS!!!!
3. Sitting in my living room looking at the tree. Says it all. I dont spend a lot of time in our living room - but when the tree is lit, I can sit in there all night long & bask in the glow.

3 Favorite Christmas Gifts Received
1. My Engagement Ring. Christmas Eve is when Ricky proposed... back in 1994. At my church's candlelight Christmas Eve midnight service. WOW... What a great Christmas that was.
2. As a teenager, I can remember opening all the presents & we were finished, but walked up to my bedroom & found a STEREO!!! I was probably 13... having my own stereo was a BIG THING. It had a DUAL CASSETTE player on it. I could RECORD CASSETTES. Oh my gosh - my mind was blown. & it had a record player on it. Bring on the albums! I still can remember the feeling of surprise of seeing it in my room & how excited I was about it.
3. We got our first dog as a kid on Christmas morning. A little schnauzer sitting under the tree... & me & my brother ran right past her. haha... She was our family member for many years.

3 Gifts I want to give the world.
1. To animals, I want to give the gift of compassion. They matter. They have minds, hearts, emotions. All the animals. I wish I would save them all.
2. To teens, I want to give the gift of presence. To let my youth know they are loved, & I am there for them to listen to them, laugh with them, to be a shoulder to lean on & a heart to celebrate with ... & mainly to point them all on the right path to help them become amazing adults.
3. To everyone I meet every day, kindness. I think kindness is so over looked. A smile. A simple gesture. Kindness can change the world if it was spread from one person to the next.

What a lovely post! I hate the stress of Christmas and the expectations that come with buying gifts and spending money. It has definitely gotten to a point where we forget the true meaning, and I want to make sure my daughter knows what it's really all about. I grew up with a good balance of the two and hope to give her the same.

I love this post. It is quite sad how commercialized Christmas has become. People have truly forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and it is so very sad. I love when someone say Merry Christmas to me because I rarely hear it these days. I wish more people understood what kindness was. A simple kind gesture can make a world of difference to someone. You never know what someone is going through. Some of the happiest people in the world are the saddest and loneliest inside.

I love your gifts to the world answer <3 Your are so thoughtful and perceptive.I wish my parents had gotten us a dog! Ha! One year I received a hamster, but he wasn't long for this world :( Someday I hope we surprise our future kids with a dog around Christmastime! (Not in the bad decision-making get-your-kid-a-dog way... we know what we're getting into with dogs ;) lol!)

I loved this post! It's sad how much of the focus of everything has shifted. We are trying really hard to keep the boys grounded in all of this and my biggest pet peeve is when people don't listen to our wishes and want to buy the boys the world. I know everyone means well but sometimes less is more. Christmas breakfast is one of my all time favorites! Sierra~Beautifully Candid

I love that you played along, Rebecca! I did not mention the Christmas lights but I love them too. It's actually what I miss most about not putting up a tree. I remember, in particular, my first Christmas in my first apartment and just staring at my Christmas tree all lit up in the dark. It was so beautiful and I felt like such an adult. :D I hate the one up-man-ship aspect of Christmas too. I love the giving (and yes, the receiving too) but I want it to be from the heart. Some of the best gifts I have received have cost very little but showed how much person knew me. Whereas I have also received very expensive gifts that meant little because they were show-off gifts that were meant to paint the giver in a glowing light and not for my sake. To be fair, I have been that person too but have learned to be better. Your gifts to give the world are spot on. Spot. On. And I think Christmas breakfast is an overlooked celebration!

Elf and The Santa Clause are two if my top movies too! I absolutely LOVE the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Christmas Canon and Christmas Canon Rock are my two favorites. I like rock a little bit more because that woman's voice is hauntingly beautiful and I get chills just thinking about it and am going to go listen to it right now!

I am thankful for each comment & like to respond to every one of them.... If you noticed I do not respond to your comments, it is because you are a "no reply" blogger and I am unable too!How to enable your e-mail: BLOGGER ACCOUNTS: To do this, click on your Dashboard, click on EDIT PROFILE and place a check mark next to SHOW MY EMAIL ADDRESS, and finally scroll to the bottom and click SAVE PROFILE.**